iPhone 15 Pro may get A17 chip with 6 GPU cores

There seems to be a small increase to core clock speeds as well, with the high-performance cores now running at 3.70 GHz, as opposed to 3.46 GHz on the A16. (Image: Apple)

Apple is a month away from launching the iPhone 15, and according to the latest rumours, the smartphone may house an A17 bionic SoC with 6 GPU cores.

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According to a tweet from user @URedditor, a known Apple tipster, the newest generation of Apple's in-house A17 silicon will have 6 CPU cores paired with 6 GPU cores.

Apple A17 - t8130 - Coll

6 CPU Cores + 6 GPU Cores 3.70 GHz 6GB LPDDR5 DRAM - Micron/Samsung TSMC 3nm Process LPDDR = Low Power Double Data Rate SDRAM The A17 is used by both the D83 and D84, also likely planned for D47 and D48 (16 series), as the D9x will use t8140 (A18). — Unknownz21 (@URedditor) August 9, 2023

To recap, last year's iPhone 14 featured the A16 SoC, which had 6 CPU cores and 5 GPU cores. While that may seem like a huge upgrade, it should result in faster graphical performance.

There seems to be a small increase to core clock speeds as well, with the high-performance cores now running at 3.70 GHz, as opposed to 3.46 GHz on the A16.

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It is all but confirmed that A17 will use TSMC's 3nm process, while the A16 was made using a 4nm process. The smaller chip should increase power efficiency but that remains to be seen.